All of Minnesota's crime labs would have to be accredited under a bill that's making its way through the Legislature.

The proposed legislation comes months after top prosecutors in three metro counties asked the state to retest evidence in hundreds of drug cases in which the St. Paul crime lab was initially used to process evidence. Experts and crime lab workers testified, starting last summer, about substandard work spanning years at the unaccredited crime lab.

"I think it's important that whatever side of the criminal justice system you're on, whether you're prosecuting or whether you're defending, that the public and all the parties to the process have confidence that the crime labs in the state are producing results that are reliable as they can possibly be," said Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, who is sponsoring the bill.

It made its first stop in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday night. A vote was delayed until later in the week while lawmakers work on a manageable timeline for enforcement.

Only five of the approximately 25 crime labs in Minnesota are accredited. Latz initially proposed mandating all of them have accreditation by Jan. 1, 2014, but there was concern among law enforcement that there wouldn't be enough time to get through the process.

"For some labs who haven't started the process, it might be impossible," said Frank Dolejsi, director of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Crime Lab.

Dolejsi said it takes approximately a year to get accredited.

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That's because it can take several months to get assessments through accrediting organizations who rely on volunteers to do the evaluations.

St. Paul's crime lab woes are far from over. The St. Paul Police Federation on Tuesday lashed out at the city's plan to replace the head of the crime lab with a civilian rather than a sworn officer. In a release, the union vowed to take "all legal steps necessary" to address the "unfair labor practice," pointing to city leadership as the root cause of the lab's problems.

The city is embarking on a $1 million improvement of the lab, including major renovation and hiring a new forensic lab manager with more background in science.

"The Federation supports reform in the crime lab and use of accredited staff, but has little faith that the City will make improvements effectively," he release said.

City and federation representatives met March 7 to discuss the issue, and on March 11 the city announced it would remain on course to hire a civilian manager, according to the Federation's release.

In a February letter to Federation lawyers, St. Paul Labor Relations Manager Jason Schmidt wrote that the city's new job classifications in the crime lab are supervisory and not covered by the union contract.

"The city does not need to negotiate this management decision," he wrote.

Joseph Lindberg contributed to this report. Megan Boldt can be reached at 651-228-5495. Follow her at twitter.com/meganboldt.